He came at them right as they were frisking his teammate's pockets. There were three sitting at the victim’s backpack and sharing the booty, while another one was rummaging the pockets. Blood rushed to the stalker’s face making him blind with anger. He opened fire kill-thirsty. Bullets were a Zone currency, but he did not spare it this time, bestowing killers and marauders with his lavish gifts.- Local folklore

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Bandits are members of the criminal underworld who came to the Zone for different reasons; to make money by selling artifacts, hide from the law or to trade in weapons. The Zone is full of Bandits, ranging from common thugs to serious criminals, most of whom are members of one gang or another. Although the Zone gangs frequently fight amongst themselves, the criminal element still poses a serious problem for normal Stalkers.

Bandits are ruthless and generally hostile to anyone not in their gang. Though depicted in Clear Sky as a united, highly territorial faction, the Bandit population in Shadow of Chernobyl consists mainly of roving groups.

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In Shadow of Chernobyl, Bandits are prevalent in the Cordon, the Garbage, the Agroprom Research Institute, the Dark Valley and the Wild Territory. The size of Bandit groups vary, from small traveling parties, to large clans. Bandits are shown robbing other Stalkers, raiding camps, and taking prisoners. Borov has taken over a sizable population of the Bandit remnants from the events of Clear Sky and made their base in the Dark Valley.

Tyro Bandits are the Bandit equivalent of the Loner faction's normal Stalkers; inexperienced rookies who are the weakest Stalkers in the zone. These Bandits wear black anoraks and ski masks and are equipped with low-level weapons, namely the PMm pistol and sawed-off shotgun. They are quite weak and can be brought down with several torso shots from the pistol or submachine gun, or a single headshot.

Skilled Bandits are similar to Tyro Bandits, but are equipped with better weaponry such as the Viper-5 submachine gun or AKM-74U compact assault rifle. Although their weapons are on the low end of the assault rifle class, they pose a reasonable threat to players wearing low-level armor. Like Tyro Bandits, Skilled Bandits can be brought down with several bullets from low-level weapons. Most Bandit encounters consist of a mix of Tyro and Skilled Bandits.

Veteran Master Bandits can be distinguished by their black or brown longcoats. They are typically armed with AKM-74U or AK-74/2 assault rifles, although they can also be found with IL 85 assault rifles as well. Master Bandits typically start appearing in the deeper areas of the Zone, such as the Wild Territory, with 1 to 3 of them leading a group of Tyro and Skilled Bandits. Although their combat skills and weaponry are better, they can't seem to survive more damage than regular Bandits.

The highest ranking Bandits, Pro Bandits are pretty much identical to Master Bandits. Like Master Bandits, they can be distinguished by their black or brown longcoats and AK-class assault rifles, and are usually found leading a group of lesser Tyro or Skilled Bandits.

In Clear Sky, the Bandits are depicted as a unified faction based in the Garbage. They capture other Stalkers and force them to dig through the irradiated piles of trash, even going so far as to set up a concentration camp for labor force prisoners.
As part of the faction wars, the player can join the Bandits, and help them increase their influence, or team up with the united Loners in order to release prisoners and fight the Bandits.
Yoga's policy for the Bandits of Clear Sky is to form a centralized force and lock down the Garbage, controlling all access points to this key area. In this he is largely unsuccessful because of his own complacency but also because of massive assaults by Valerian's united stalkers and Duty, as well as Freedom incursions. Crumbling under pressure from these factors, the Bandit faction collapses, suffers decentralization and a change of leadership, as well as becoming disorganized as it is in Shadow of Chernobyl.

It is also interesting to note that an elite detachment of Bandits exists as far into the Zone as Limansk. All wear Merc suits and are heavily equipped. Their leader wears an exoskeleton and wields a heavy duty PKM, very rare among Bandits, who usually field more inferior equipment. After fending off a mercenary assault and being besieged by Monolith, they are eventually defeated by Scar.

Rookie Bandits are fairly common amongst the bandit ranks at the beginning of the game but tend to disappear towards the end. These Bandits wear next to no armor and are equipped with weak weapons, the PMm pistol and sawed-off shotgun. They are quite weak and can be brought down with several torso shots from a pistol or submachine gun, or a single headshot.

Experienced Bandits are similar to Rookie Bandits, but are equipped with better skills and weapons. They pose a reasonable threat to players and AI wearing low-level armor. Like Rookie Bandits, Skilled Bandits have awful armor and can be brought down quite fast. Most Bandit squads consist of a mix of Rookie and experienced Bandits.

Veteran Bandits can be distinguished by their brown stalker suits. They are typically armed with Chaser 13 or AK-74/2. These bandits provide a huge threat to the player and AI in Clear Sky as they throw many F1 grenades which can instantly kill most stalkers. Veteran Bandits typically start appearing when the bandit resource meter reaches half . They may not be as skilled as their expert counterparts but they have the equipment to be much more dangerous. These bandits are a real asset for players who join the bandit facton as they can easily drop any exoskeletons that the opposing factions throws at them.

The highest ranking Bandits they are highly skilled with AK-class assault rifles and are extremely proficient with their grenades and are usually found leading a group of lesser Bandits. These Bandits only start appearing when the bandit resource meter reaches towards the end.

Bandits are hostile to all other factions in Clear Sky except Freedom, although they occasionally bug and shoot a Freedom member which leads them to be hostile to them as well. Their greatest threat is the never ending horde of squads that Duty sends towards them. The stalkers will never make a move to defeat the bandits if the player is not part of the stalker faction. A player who has joined the bandit faction needs to single handedly kill as many Duty faction members as possible and stay in Agroprom whilst the bandits move up. The bandits can easily beat the stalkers on their own and do not require the help of the player until towards the end. Basically all the player does once joining the bandits is kill Duty members to stop the never ending spam of heavily armored and equipped AI.

In Clear Sky, the Bandits are notorious for their extortion. They take all of the player's money if one wants to pass through to another area. Below is a list of events where Bandits have an opportunity of robbing you and a countermeasure.

Cordon to the Garbage - Your first encounter will be with Bandits guarding the receiving outpost from the Cordon to the Garbage. You can choose to sprint past them and risk several hits from them, or you could take a detour by going to the Dark Valley and taking the upper path to the Garbage instead.

Basement tripmine - This is the part of the main questline where the Bandits will rig the basement where Fang's PDA is located, causing the player to be knocked out cold. During the player's incapacitation, they will take whatever cash and items he has on him. The player can still take revenge and get your items back from the Bandits nearby, as there is a PMm and some ammo near his PDA. If you want to save yourself some trouble, dump all of your items in a stash or near the rubble at the entrance of the basement and simply get them back when you get Fang's PDA. As for your cash, this is not avoidable but there is a way for you to cut your losses.You could spend your money on food items and sell them back afterwards, because food items don't depreciate in value. You can also simply splurge all of your cash on upgrades, repairs, and supplies so it won't be a total loss.

Garbage to the Agroprom research institute - This is immediately after the tripmine incident. You have 0 RU but the flash drive near Fang's PDA can be traded to Limpid for 12 500 RU. In order not to lose any money, it is simpler to delay in trading in the flash disk and wait until you complete the job for General Krylov; since by that time Duty will have already secured all their entry checkpoints in the Garbage and you can get it again for free. Once the Bandits stop you, they'll get nothing out of you (since you have no money) and you can make your way to Agroprom without too many problems.

In Call of Pripyat, the Bandits change into a slightly secretive faction, and they begin to act in a united and organized manner. The main leader, Sultan, has set up deals with several of the factions, including Freedom and some members of Duty. These deals are usually artifact exchanges and weapon purchases. It seems Sultan kept to the shadows and observed the failings of the Bandits under Yoga's and Borov's leadership, and comes to realise that open warfare with multiple other factions could only work against the Bandits in the long term. Along their new way of work, Bandits occasionally do raids on Stalkers and attempt to claim superiority. There also appears to be two distinct factions, operating independently of another. The Bandits of Yanov do not always listen to Sultan, and usually work in the more traditional sense, holding up Loners, even kidnapping and extorting others for financial gain - some of them go as far as to immediately open fire on Loners and unaffiliated Stalkers, such as the player, without warning. These 'classic' Bandits are led by Jack, who runs a loan-shark business that has taken some Loners as victims. He was also loan-sharking Vano.

Comparatively common, Rookie Bandits wear the trademark black anorak and blue track pants that they wore in the first two games. Their armory is somewhat upgraded, as all of them will carry at least a Sawed-off shotgun, with some carrying AKM-74/2U . Their jackets are in fact the worst armor in the game, with no protection whatsoever. They can be dropped with ease with nearly any weapon.

Usually working in tandem with a Rookie or another Experienced, these fellows wear the brown trenchcoats that Veterans wore in Shadow of Chernobyl. They wield the same weaponry as Rookies, but occasionally equip AKM-74/2 and Chaser 13 instead. They also carry grenades and can be just a bit more of an fight then their less experienced comrades.

Wearing the Bandit variant of the Merc Suit, the Veterans are the toughest of the Bandits regularly seen in the game. They tend to wield AKM-74s and occasionally Chaser 13 shotguns, as well as an ample supply of grenades. Otherwise they're fairly unremarkable foes.

Wearing the black trenchcoats, Expert Bandits are a rare sight, and have a fairly short lifespan compared to other Experts. Despite being fairly intelligent and tactically sound in combat, they simply don't have the equipment to match their opponents and thus often die in droves against them. They tend to use AK-74s exclusively, but some may make use of Eliminator shotguns and AN-94s .

The common Bandit is usually seen wearing a black anorak and track suit pants, as well as a hooded shirt. Some higher rank Bandits are seen wearing long hooded trenchcoats. Bandits tend to be armed with light, worn weapons such as sawn-off shotguns and Viper 5 sub-machine guns. Bandits found in the series have the image of Marijuana emblem on their backpacks and track suit pants, slightly resembling Adidas real-life entry-level track pants.

In Clear Sky, the Bandits had a severe bug that would discourage and even prevent some from joining their faction. Before patch 1.5.05, Borov, Yoga and Senka would go out of the base and attack whenever the Bandit base was attacked. Although the death of Senka isn't significant and more of beneficial as one can search his corpse for a Black Kite, the death of Borov removes the faction's barman and the death of Yoga will permanently end any chances of joining the bandits. After patch 1.5.05, this bug was fixed, but not completely removed, as Yoga might still wander off and attack hostilities outside the base and become stuck in a location and prevents the player from talking to him. Reloading one's quick save will reset Yoga from this bug.

Also, Bandits and Freedom are antagonistic to each other, but if player joins one of these factions, second of them will not be an enemy to player (however, joining Bandits will reset Freedom's respect to neutral).